Customer Reviews

Latin for People : Latina Pro Populo

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book, 'Latin for People: Latina pro Populo', is an engaging way of learning the basics of the Latin language. Humez and Humez intersperse history and story with grammar lessons to make them less intimidating and more accessible. Alas, you will still need to learn conjugations and some words (languages are like that, you know), but you will practice on translating such sentences as: An island is not a suitable place for an adulterer. For the record, they do not give advice as to what would be a suitable place.

In the chapter entitled 'Mood Music', one learns a bit about pre-Christian Roman music, including the forerunner to our do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do, that being hexachordal ut-re-mi-fa-so-la (the unsingable ut being happily replaced now with the modern do). Other chapters bring in specific topics to deepen the vocabulary and quality of texts as well as explicate grammar points.

All the basics of a Latin grammar are included in this brief book, but there is always more to be had. Humez and Humez in the final chapter proceed to give suggestions, which include many of the classics (the Aenied, the Biblia Sacra, Caesar's De Bello Gallico) as well as texts such as Harrington's Medieval Latin.

This book certainly contains all the Latin a non-scholar would need, and goes a long way in making one appear much more educated than the average bear (especially if one supplements this with memorised quotations from Winnie Ille Pu!). It also is a good refresher for those of us who did the Latin course with such drier tomes like Wheelock.

I'm inclined to like this book, but I really wish I liked it better than I do. The style is breezy and engaging. The background material on language is quite interesting, the grammar explanations are at least entertaining when they aren't outright fascinating. But really, this is no book for the novice who wants to teach himself Latin. It demands either a good teacher or a dimly remembered Latin class. Comments on the back cover ("[they] have fashioned an easy-going and satisfying introduction to the language...") and in the text ("this book is intended as a course in Latin for the nibbler and the glutton alike...") are misleading. This book is no introductory teach yourself Latin text.

What's wrong with it as an introductory text? In the first chapter we're given some very interesting history of Latin and the Romance languages, along with the probable pronunciations of the alphabet. These are followed in chapter 2 with all six cases, singular and plural, of first and second declension nouns and the complete declension of adjectives. There's barely a mention of what grammatical function the different cases serve, just occasional comments in passing - e.g., "agricolae is in the dative because the farmer is being given something. Dative comes from the verb "to give," of which dat is a form." Gee, thanks, now I'm ready to use the dative case. Then come the exercises, which show the authors' unfortunate predilection for word play. The reader is trying to get a handle on the declensional patterns of words like "liber" (free) and "malus" (bad), and the exercises use them in the meanings "children," "Bacchus," and "apple." Yes, we've been warned not to confuse the neuter nominative adjective "malum" with "apple," but it's hard on the reader when the authors go all playful on us with those words before we've mastered the basics of declension.

I teach Russian from time to time and am well aware of the difficulties of teaching cases and declensions. I think there's a very good reason that most texts present each case on its own, with lots of explanation about its use and exercises to help nail it down. This book doesn't do that. I don't really mind - I already know what the dative case is, thanks - but I have a lot of experience with different languages and a degree in linguistics. People without that experience and without prior exposure to Latin certainly will mind.

So if I'm so down on this book, why four stars? Because if we look at it for what it is and not for what it pretends to be, it's really a very good book. It's a refresher course for people who studied Latin, a supplement for Wheelock, a language book for professional and dilettante linguists. And in being those things it's well written and informative. I'm just going to put it aside until I finish Wheelock.

The title would lead you to believe that this book is for anyone who wants to get an idea of how Latin works. When you actually read it, you'll see it's really more of a grammar book that quickly explains many major grammar points and lists all declensions, verb conjugations, etc.... For someone who has never studied Latin, the information is not comprehensive enough to really learn it, plus it assumes that you have a pretty good head for grammar in the first place.

However, this book is much more useful for someone who has already studied a year or so of Latin and is searching for some non-stuffy explanations and examples of what they have already learned. The authors certainly aim to make these points more fun than authors of traditional textbooks. The problem is that sometimes you need a deeper explanation to really learn a point -- take the subjunctive for example. In my opinion they just gave an overview of the subjuctive which gives the student a rough idea, but to really master the subjunctive, you'd need to see a real list of rules and tenses. My favorite Latin textbook is the Moreland and Fleisher which is the comprehensive version of all Latin syntax and grammar broken up into 18 chapters. This book is a good supplement to a grammar text, but not a replacement for one.

This book introduces Latin to the reader through history, exercises, and jokes, yet the material covered is the equivalent of a first year Latin course. Buy this book before you move on to any other Latin textbook. I never thought I would enjoy learning Latin, but I did with this book.

A wry, caustic, crusty survey of Latin as a functioning tool of communication, useful for berating, deriding, flattering, prevaricating, seducing, and expounding inter alia. Very well done! Useful, I think, chiefly for people who have reached a plateau in their studies of Latin, who can struggle through assigned passages of Caesar but can't get the whole gestaltus of Latin grammar. Many of the readings in Latin are humorous, occasionally anachronistic and/or racy.

This is a book for someone who has take Latin and wants a casual and rather cutsey flashback but it's not really that good for learning the language on your own. A better choice would be Peter Jones's "Learn Latin", of which there are still quite a few knocking around, or if you really want a thorough grounding, Wheelock or the Oxford course.

You should not expect to be able to read an ancient text after working your way though this book.

I teach Latin. This book explains Latin grammar with a sense of humor. It gives you the reasons behind the intricacies.
This probably shouldn't be your only book on Latin. It may very well be your first.

The brothers Humez introduce the principles of Latin prose in an entertaining way - for instance, one of the sample translation exercises turns out to begin "A bear walked into a bar ..." Information-packed, yet never heavy.

This book may whet the appetite of someone curious about the way Latin functions. It's an antipasto, not the main course. It will not help anyone to read real Latin, but it may entertain and intrigue some enough to start them on the hard work of learning the language for real.

A reviewer many years ago praised this book "despite its sophomoric giggles." But what can you expect from a Latin grammar for (more or less) grownups whose readings for translation are shaggy dog stories ("Ursus in tabernam introiit...") and whose sentences poke fun at classical tags and generally horse around (one example of a subjunctive construction: "Would that they had had a chamber-pot....")? Its thigh-slappers notwithstanding, this is a sound grammar and one of the first of this ancient tongue to be written from a post-Chomskian linguistic worldview; the grammar synopsis at the back would make it a handy reference work all on its own. Great fun, and deservedly a classic in its own right.